Dead or Alive Ultimate review

Considering how badly the Xbox has tanked in Japan, it's ironic that the company that consistently gets the most out of the console is Japanese. Tecmo has developed a reputation for stunning looking games thanks to a line-up that includes Dead or Alive 3, DOA Extreme Volleyball and Ninja Gaiden. These games, yes even the volleyball one, are examples of pushing the hardware to the limit.

It's strange then that its latest game is a rehash of two older titles. Dead or Alive Ultimate gives Xbox owners a chance to play the first two games in the Dead or Alive franchise. The first game harks back to the days when 3D beat'em ups were common and PlayStation owners could choose from a wide variety of games that encompassed such titles as Star Gladiator ("Kappa Kappa Kappa"), Battle Area Toshinden, Tekken, Star Wars: The Masters of Teras Kasai (Oh the horror) and of course, Dead or Alive.

Dead or Alive offered some unique features. The first was the nature of the play area. The outside of the central arena the floor contained explosive sections and a player knocked down here would be flung into the air. The second major feature was the gameplay model; it introduced a block and counter system that made the fights much more fluid than any of its rivals.

The early years

The latter innovation was the most important for the franchise and remains the central element that marks this game out from surviving rival fighting series and newer upstarts.

But that's not what people remember is it? What they remember about the first game is breasts, big bouncing breasts. If you are the kind of person who is giggling now when I used the word breasts, or got a cheap thrill out of the word, then you are the kind of person Dead or Alive was aimed at.

Tecmo went out of its way to point out the bouncing breasts in its first game. There was an option to switch the feature on and off, not that anyone ever switched them off. But there was nothing realistic about the bounce, the breasts made strange stretching movements that were far from natural. But if you like that kind of thing and also want to see how the franchise began, you'll find an Xbox conversion of the original game on disk one of this release. It's a faithful conversion with no new fancy graphics, just the original Dead or Alive for your beat'em up pleasure.

Beauty restored

Pop disk two into the Xbox and things are very different. Here we enter the world of Dead or Alive 2, but no mere conversion of the original game, but one that has been given the kind of love only Tecmo knows how to express.

The second game in the series added fabulous areas where players could be kicked from rooftops or through walls. So now the action wasn't constricted in the vertical plane, this was one up against the rivals. If you'd never played Dead or Alive 2 then this would just seem like a brand new game, say Dead or Alive 4.

What we have is a wonderful array of game modes on offer, The centre of the game is the story mode, where you can choose a character and explore an incomprehensive plot via a series of bouts. You can download a movie of yours truly playing this mode here. Story mode lasts for seven fights no matter which character you play and the last fight is always against Tengu. While this mode is a lot of fun, it's a shame it has to be repeated so often to unlock items – especially as fighting the final character, Tengu, over and over gets real old real quick.

Mode blowout

Thankfully when you tire of playing the story mode over and over there are plenty of other ways to enjoy the game. Tag battle mode lets you pick two players for your team and switch between them at a press of a button (download a tag battle movie).

There's an alternative to unlocking everything via story mode. Collect all the items in survival mode and every unlockable is yours. But just don't expect to be able to do this pretty quickly. One item requires defeating 50 enemies in a row and the final list of items is very hard to come by. (download a survival mode video).

But Tecmo knows that these modes and more are all very well, but sometimes you just want to watch a game this pretty do its thing and just sit back and watch. With that in mind there's a watch mode that's ideal for taking a look at the gorgeous graphics. Take this watch mode movie for example, which shows off some safari wildlife. I defy anyone who's got this game not to pick all the cute chicks in the game for a watch mode tag battle – it's designed for the geek in all of us. Or at least in all of you, pure as the driven snow I am.

Punch punch kick punch

So DOAU is packed to the gunwales with options, modes and things to do and see, but what's the fighting actually like. Well just like every game in the series it's fast and frantic. It's not perfect though.

Blocking is quite difficult at times, the focus of the fighting model is on combos, and once started it's almost impossible to block one. Counter moves also seem a little too powerful.

But the fighting doesn't stray too far from the usual Dead or Alive formula and it's easy enough to pick up and get to grips with, especially as there are many tutorial options within the game. One button for kick and one for punch make it easy for beginners, but behind this apparent simplicity and chicks with big breasts, there is a game of some depth and strategy here.

The real triumph of Dead or Alive Ultimate is the Xbox Live support. Even before you think of playing against other people there are great online options. Your survival and time attack scores can be uploaded so you can show off your single gameplay triumphs. But playing against other gamers really shows off Tecmo's superb Live implementation.

Online on the money

One of the problems I have with one on one Live games is that it's an awkward situation. There you are suddenly chatting to someone you don't know.

But that's not a problem here. You can set up a Live game in seconds and there's slots for eight players. It's just like having eight friends sat in front of one Xbox – everyone can watch the fights between the players, and you can choose game modes such as tournament, loser stays on or winner stays on. I hope other developers learn from this - certainly football games could benefit from this approach.

You might think a hectic game such as this couldn't be played online, but the net code is fantastic. The reaction times between hitting the button and moving seem just the same as playing another player on the same machine. And with so many options for checking your abilities, scores and rankings the package is really complete. My only criticism of the net play is that players can set up nicknames as well as their usual gamertag. These names don't seem to be policed and I saw some racist names on my travels and others such as "Rapist".

Well rounded package

Make no mistake, Dead or Alive: Ultimate is one hell of a pretty game. Okay, I do have some reservations about the nature of the characters – the obsession with huge breasts leaves some of them looking a bit ridiculous. And the adolescent appearance of several characters and the way they are used for sexual titillation isn't wise or mindful of wider issues outside this game. It's about time Tecmo grew up a little, or at least its game characters did.

That aside, the animation is great – though perhaps not as good as DOA3 – and the fighting arenas the best the series has seen. If you want a game to show off the power of Xbox, this is it.

Dead or Alive ultimate is a wonderful package, but just fails to attain greatness due to a few problems. Unlocking items is based on repetition, too much repetition and for the next game in the series I hope there are other ways of unlocking items.

The problems with counters/blocking are more important and again this is something that needs to be tweaked for next time. More variety in the story mode would also be welcome - fighting against Tengu just gets dull after a short while.

I don't want to end on a negative note though. Tecmo has once again shown other developers how much graphical splendour can be squeezed out of the Xbox. And it's a great lesson in how Xbox Live integration should be handled for one-on-one games. If you love beat'em ups then you have to have this in your collection. While not a classic, it's the best example of the genre on the Xbox so far. And on a machine with a dearth of such games, you owe it to yourself to snap it up.